Trusts & Estates

“Over and over again courts have said that there is nothing sinister in so arranging one’s affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. [F]or nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands: taxes are enforced exactions, not voluntary contributions.” —Judge Learned Hand in the Dissenting Opinion to Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Newman, 159 F.2d 848 (2d Cir. 1947).

Stites & Harbison’s Trusts & Estates Group enthusiastically agrees with Judge Hand’s opinion above, and work judiciously to help clients minimize their tax burdens.

The attorneys of Stites & Harbison’s Trusts & Estates Group routinely serve clients in a range of matters that include:

• Wills
• Living trusts
• Irrevocable trust agreements
• Marital deduction trusts
• Generation-skipping trusts
• Qualified personal residence trusts
• GRATs and GRUTs
• Trusts for minors
• Powers of attorney
• Advance medical directives
• Tax counsel for minimizing current income taxes, future inheritance and estate taxes, and taxes on retirement
• Handling of income tax matters at death
• Planning to avoid the generation-skipping tax
• Exercising powers of appointment
• Beneficiary and distribution decisions under qualified retirement plans and IRAs

We also provide to our clients special assets services such as:

• Estate and trust administration services
• Consultation and counsel to trust companies and individual fiduciaries
• Representation of charitable and non-profit organizations
• Management and disposition of valuable assets
• Valuation of private businesses
• Planning of beneficial interests under trusts
• Advice on the use of family limited partnerships and limited liability companies to maximize transfer tax savings for business and family assets
• Planning for foreign holdings
• Advice with respect to charitable gifts of tangible property and appreciated securities and on “remainder” and “lead” gifts.